PETALING JAYA: Family means everything to 24-year-old Jocelyn Dewi. Her father, once the breadwinner of the family, passed away in a road accident a few years ago, leaving behind his four children and bereaved wife.
Consequently, Jocelyn has become the family provider, and she says her sole purpose is to do whatever she can to provide her siblings with a better life.
“My father was a security guard, and before that he was a personal driver,” she tells FMT. “He worked so hard for us and I miss him every day.”
After losing her job as a waitress a couple of months ago because of the pandemic, she set up a small home business, Jo’s Kitchen.
“My mother is 60 years old. She has not been the same since my father passed,” Joceyln explains. “She is very weak and can’t work anymore, so it is up to me.”
Her siblings are Anandasai Sumetta, 15; Ananda Krishna, 13; Andrew Metta, 11.
“They are all still in school. I can’t expect them to help by working, as they need to focus on their studies,” she adds.
What little money she earns primarily goes to keeping the roof over their heads and buying more data for her sister and brothers to study online.
“Sometimes they run out of internet for their classes, which is a big worry,” Jocelyn says. “Since everything is on the computer, they need it to do their work and go to school.”
A video advertising Jo’s Kitchen, posted on Jocelyn’s Instagram page, features Sumetta and Andrew explaining the family’s plight. The video has amassed over 15,000 views.
All in the family
Jo’s Kitchen sells local dishes, mostly Indian fare as well as favourites like nasi goreng and mee hoon goreng, all cooked by Jocelyn herself.
Jocelyn had a brief stint as a delivery driver after being let go from her waitressing job, but that was far from enough to keep food on the table.
“I thought to myself, ‘What is something we can all do together as a family?’ The first thing that came to my mind was cooking,” she shares.
Now, instead of spending their afternoons playing like most children their age, her siblings work hard in the kitchen.
The boys help pack the food into containers for delivery, while her sister Sumetta crafts the menu and helps Jocelyn cook. Their ailing mother helps whenever she can.
“I’m so grateful that they help me,” Jocelyn says. “We work together as a team. It gets so busy in the kitchen, but everyone knows what job they have to do and they do it without complaining.
“They all work so hard.”
She cooks in big batches, with her food ranging from RM3 to RM5 per container with a minimum order of 50 containers.
“Business has not been so good,” Jocelyn, who has been working since she was 18, reveals dejectedly. “We only earn around 50 sen to RM1 per pack of food, depending on how much people order, so things have been tough.”
She has also turned to selling Indian prayer accessories on Instagram for extra money.
“I sell incense sticks and ‘sambrani’, which I make myself at home. They are very cheap, but still no one is buying.”
‘Luckiest girl in the world’
Asked how her siblings are coping, Jocelyn feels like the luckiest girl in the world to have them.
“They are the most understanding, caring people I could ever ask for. After school, they want to help me with the cooking.
“They even offer to skip classes sometimes,” she says with a laugh.
“Even though we don’t have much, they are always so thankful for everything. I want to be able to give them a good education. Everything I do is for them.” - FMT
To help Jocelyn and her family, contact her at 016-2010261 or drop her a direct message via Instagram. You can also support her prayer accessories store here.
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